Commercial Disputes - Contracts and Business Torts

Phil Collier, Whitney Watt, Catherine Banich and Jay Pontrelli

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Your day-to-day operations depend on relationships with suppliers, purchasers and customers. Long-term success also depends on agreements with key business partners. When a contract dispute threatens your business, we can help. In some circumstances, aggressively defending or prosecuting a civil suit makes good sense, while alternative dispute resolution techniques may be the best solution for your business.

 Disputes like these may involve business tort allegations—a claim that "something more" than a simple contract breach has caused harm. These kind of claims may raise the stakes by permitting recovery of punitive damages or may be used as a device to avoid contract remedy limitations. Whether the allegations are based upon tortious interference, misrepresentation, fraud or federal business tort statutes like RICO, we can help navigate the choppy waters generated by the interaction between contract and tort rights.

Stites & Harbison attorneys bring experience and a deep bench to help resolve business disputes.

Experience

  • Acted as lead counsel for the owner of a large bulk materials plant. The challenge: recover plant output losses caused by a fire and explosion—where the parties responsible became insolvent just after the case was filed, and their insurers denied coverage in a parallel coverage action. The litigation focused on choice of law, contractual limitations on remedies and coverage issues tied to loss of use damages. The parties briefed and argued the choice of law issue and the Court agreed with our client. After conducting discovery and mediation, the defendants' insurers paid millions to settle the claim.
  • Represented a surface coal mining company that had been sold by a publicly traded company to our client. The company had its assets systematically looted by insiders and vendors. We filed and prosecuted four "RICO" suits against the culprits and eventually collected more than $10 million in settlements from the wrongdoers after five years of difficult litigation. The discovery we took was used in connection with five indictments and three convictions of the perpetrators by federal prosecutors.
  • Successfully represented the holder of a $2.5 million note in enforcing their rights in the face of fraud breach of fiduciary duty claims, arising from the failure of a closely held corporation.

What Others are saying about us:

"We have found Stites & Harbison responsive and diligent in all matters."

 - U.S. News & World Report / Best Lawyers -
   "Best Law Firms" Client Interviews 2010

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